USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > The Continental Army at the crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night of 1776 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
The army marched to the Bear tavern, and then about three miles further to Birmingham, through woods of hickory and oak. Here Captain MOTT told General SULLIVAN that the priming powder in their arms was becoming damp. SULLIVAN's reply was, " Well, boys, we must fight them with the bayonet." When WASHINGTON heard of this he said : "Tell them to use the bayonet and penetrate the town, for the town must be taken and I am resolved to take it."
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
A hasty breakfast was made at Birmingham, WASHINGTON partaking of the hospitalities of BENJAMIN MOORE. The column was then broken into two divisions-one to go by the River road, under Major-General SULLIVAN, and the other by the Pennington road, under Major-General NATHANAEL GREENE. General WASHINGTON rode with GREENE's column. SULLIVAN had with him the brigades of ST. CLAIR, GLOVER and SARGENT, the batteries of NEIL, HUGG, MOULDER and SARGENT. GREENE had the brigades of STEPHEN, MERCER, Lord STIRLING and DE FERMOY, Captain MORRIS' Phila- delphia troop of light horse, and the batteries of FORREST, BAUMAN and HAMILTON.
The column of GREENE first came within sight of the alarm- house on the Pennington road. The picket guard, under command of Lieutenant WIEDERHOLD, was in HOWELL's house and their guns were stacked at the door, with a sentinel in charge. The advance party of the Americans instantly charged towards the house, but the guards ran out, shouting : "Der Feind ! Der Feind ! Heraus ! Heraus !" And giving the patriots a volley they retired. Accord- ing to instructions, General STEPHEN charged with great spirit on the retreating outposts. The picket fell back on the reserve, which was at the house and general store of ALEXANDER CALHOUN, at the head of the street now called by his name, the road which then led to BEATTY's ferry. Captain VON ALTENBOCKUM and his company of the VON LOSSBERG regiment formed this reserve, but they, too, gave way before the rapid dash of STEPHEN's troops.
It was nearly eight o'clock in the morning when General GREENE's column forced the picket station on the Pennington road, and it was just three minutes afterward when General SULLI- VAN's advance, his men having halted at the road at the head of HOWELL's ferry to allow General GREENE's division to gain a little time on him, struck the yager picket post at "The Hermitage." Both pickets were overwhelmed, of course, by superior numbers, and the Americans rushed "pell-mell," as Colonel KNOX said,
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
into the town. By the rapid firing it was clear that each column vied with the other to be the first in the attack on the main body of the Hessians.
As soon as RALL's grenadiers heard the firing on the Pennington road they hurried out of their quarters on King street and formed in front of what is now the American House. The VON Loss- BERG regiment made their formation under the poplar trees in Church alley, on the north side of the graveyard in the rear of the English church. The VON KNYPHAUSEN regiment organized on Queen street and began to march westward along Second street.
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Colonel RALL, who had in the early hours of the morning left HUNT's house, and reached his own quarters and his bed, when he heard the noise in the town, opened his window and called out to know what was the matter. He was informed by his Brigade Adju- tant, Lieutenant PIEL. Although he had not recovered from his carousal of the previous night, he hurriedly dressed himself and appeared on the street on horseback to assume command. Seeing his own regiment already formed a few rods down the street, he started them on a run up King street.
At this time General WASHINGTON had taken position on the high ground on the northwest corner of property now owned by Mr. JOHN S. CHAMBERS, just at the junction of what is now Foun- tain avenue and Princeton avenue. From this point he could, with his glass, overlook the whole open village and direct the fight.
Then Captain THOMAS FORREST opened his battery down Queen street, while Captain ALEXANDER HAMILTON fired down King street from the very spot where the battle monument is to be erected. The Hessian cannon had been run up the street ahead of the RALL regiment to the little stone bridge which then covered what we call PETTY's run, and the third shot from HAMILTON's guns disabled their battery. Immediately the brigade of General Lord STIRLING began to charge down King street. Captain WILLIAM WASHINGTON, his Lieutenant, JAMES MONROE, and their company of Colonel
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
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WEEDON's regiment were on the right of STIRLING's brigade. These two officers were wounded in the charge, but they took two field pieces and drove the RALL regiment off the street into the gardens between King and Queen streets, pushing them back in great confusion on the VON LOSSBERG regiment, which was just coming out of Church alley into what is now Greene street. Then both organizations started off together from Queen street across the fields in the direction of the place where Montgomery street now crosses the feeder. Before leaving Queen street RALL had given an order to the Adjutant of the VON KNYPHAUSEN regiment to have the regiment endeavor to reach the Assunpink bridge, but when this officer reported to Major VON DECHOW he found that his regi- ment was being driven through Second street into the orchard.
. Colonel RALL joined the RALL and VON LOSSBERG regiments as they were marching in a northeasterly direction and had left the town, and he ordered them to right-about and attack the village. This they promptly did. They had again reached the junction of Queen street and Church alley when they found themselves sorely pressed by STIRLING's men, who fired from houses and fences on King street and the alley. Captain FORREST's guns on the upper part of the street had created havoc among the foe, and General MERCER's brigade was charging down Queen street on their broken ranks. RALL had sent his Adjutant down Queen street to see if the bridge was still open. He found that it was not, and that the Americans held the only avenue of escape. But RALL was still shouting : "All who are my grenadiers, forward !" when a bullet struck him He fell from his horse in front of ISAAC YARD'S house, and was carried into the Methodist church, on the northeast corner of what is now Greene and Academy streets, while the column of the Americans pushed the remnant of the two demoral- ized regiments through Third and Fourth streets into the orchard.
While these charges were being made, General STEPHEN's and General DE FERMOY's brigades, by WASHINGTON's orders, hurried
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
toward the Fox Chase tavern, on Brunswick road, to prevent the escape of the enemy to Maidenhead. This they succeeded in doing.
General SULLIVAN's division, as I have said, drove in the picket on the River road. The cry was then raised with which I began my paper, "These are the times that try men's souls," and down the road the Americans ran, pushing all before them. The whole town was now in an uproar. Colonel JOHN STARK, afterward the hero of Bennington, swung around ALEXANDER CHAMBERS' house, on the northeast corner of what is now State and Willow streets, and, as Major WILKINSON wrote, "Dealt death wherever he found resistance, and broke down all opposition before him."
General SULLIVAN, with Colonel GLOVER's brigade and NEIL's and SARGENT's batteries, sent a party to take the people in the bar- racks, and then ran their headlong race around into Front street and so on to the bridge over the creek at what we call the "Assan - pink Block," to prevent, if possible, the escape of the enemy. In this they were only partly successful. Colonel GLOVER's brigade crossed the bridge and was instantly posted on the high ground on the creek just east of the bridge. The report shows that four hun- dred and seventeen men, consisting of the English light horse, the picket posts at the Assunpink bridge, at Crosswicks bridge and at the Trenton landing, the artillerymen, the detachment at the yager picket post and some men of the RALL and VON KNYPHAUSEN regi- ments, escaped and joined Colonel VON DONOP as he was making his retreat northward, or went by the Sandtown road and reported to General LESLIE at Princeton. Quite a number of stragglers from the Hessian regiments tried also to reach the bridge. Many of them escaped, but some were hemmed in on Queen street, between the force of Colonel STARK, on Second street, and the American brigade, then in possession of the bridge. They surren- dered in front of what is now the TAYLOR Opera House, and hence this is often erroneously called the place of surrender of the Hessian troops. As SULLIVAN's division came in front of the Presbyterian
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
church on Second street, a show of resistance was for a moment made, and Major VON DECHOW determined there to make a stand with the veterans of the VON KNYPHAUSEN regiment. But the dauntless STARK would brook no resistance, and he charged them with relentless fury. This Hessian regiment, too, was then pushed back into the orchard.
The RALL and VON LOSSBERG regiments, as I have already said, had been huddled in the orchard. The three remaining field officers, Lieutenant-Colonel SCHEFFER and Majors VON HANSTEIN and MATTHAUS, held a brief council and determined to break through the American force and make an effort to reach Princeton. They noticed, however, the double lines of STEPHEN and DE FER- MOY on the Brunswick road, and Captain FORREST's six-gun battery was just then placed in position near the Friends' meeting-house, on Third, now Hanover street. The order to fire was about to be given, when the Hessians, seeming for the first time to realize that they were surrounded by superior numbers, lowered their standards and grounded their guns, while the officers put their hats on the points of their swords. General Lord STIRLING rode forward and Lieutenant-Colonel FRANCIS SCHEFFER, then the senior officer of the Hessian brigade, surrendered his sword and his command to him. This ceremony took place on the edge of the apple orchard, east of what is now Montgomery street ; we may correctly say, on the two blocks north and the two blocks east of the corner on which the post-office stands.
The VON KNYPHAUSEN regiment essayed first to march down along the low ground of the creek from the orchard to the stone bridge and so to escape, but they found the bridge guarded by the Americans. They tried also to ford the creek, and in this a few succeeded. Their commander, Major VON DECHOW, had been badly wounded, and had given himself up a prisoner of war. The two guns they had with them were mired in the marshy shore of the creek and could not be got out. They heard also that the other
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
Hessian regiments had surrendered, and they saw Lord STIRLING with his brigade pushing on through the orchard toward them. Then they, too, grounded their arms near where the Montgomery street bridge crosses the creek.
The news of the surrender was taken to WASHINGTON by his aide, Colonel BAYLOR. A few moments afterward Major WILKINSON, ST. CLAIR's aide, rode up, and WASHINGTON pressed the hand of the boyish soldier with the remark : "This is a glorious day for our country, Major WILKINSON !" And truly it was a glorious day. The tide of the misfortunes of the war had now been turned and the Declaration of Independence had been made a reality by this the first brilliant stroke of victory.
Poor RALL, the brave soldier, was now carried from the Methodist church to his own quarters, wounded, dying. When he was un- dressed, the note of the Tory was found, and he knew then that if he had read it when it was delivered to him, and acted on it, he would not have been the victim of defeat. Generals WASHINGTON and GREENE called on him during the morning and took his parole, and promised him kind treatment for his men. He died on the evening of December 27, and was buried in the Presbyterian graveyard. Lieutenant KINEN, of his regiment, wrote him an epitaph, which was never cut in marble: " Here Lies Colonel RALL ; all is over with him."
The character of Colonel RALL may be summed up from German documents. He was of a generous, hospitable, kindly disposition. He was fond of the glitter and display of military life ; he loved music, and every morning as he sat at his window in his quarters he enjoyed the parade of his regiment with the haut-boys playing as they performed their evolutions around the little picket fence which encircled the English church. Withal he was a brave soldier in battle and fought desperately at Long Island, White Plains and Fort Washington. He was called by his superior officers the " Hessian Lion." He had, however, a violent temper,
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
and this affected at times his judgment and militated against his skill in holding high commands.
The loss of the Americans was two officers and two enlisted men wounded. None were killed. The Hessians lost five officers killed and six wounded ; seventeen enlisted men killed and seventy-eight wounded. Twenty-four Hessian soldiers were known to have been buried in this village. General WASHINGTON reported to Congress that nine hundred and eighteen men had been made prisoners of war. The American army also took six brass three-pounders, forty horses, one thousand stand of arms and fifteen colors. Two of these cannon were used by the Americans at the battle of Brandy- wine and were recaptured by the British. One of the flags was hung up in the hall of Congress and had on it the motto : "Nescit pericula"-"contempt of danger"-certainly ill-suited to the vanquished Hessians. In the " Freeman's Journal " of February II, 1777, appeared a witty doggerel :
" The man who submits without striking a blow, May be said in a sense no danger to know, I pray then what harm, by the humble submission At Trenton was done to the standard of Hessian ?"
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A council of war was called at noon, and although General GREENE and Colonel KNox urged a rapid pursuit of the foe, Gen- eral WASHINGTON decided to recross the river immediately and thus secure his prisoners and the trophies of victory. The march was then taken up by the River road to McKONKEY's ferry. The weary patriots stepped along the road with glad hearts, and minded not the hail and rain which they had borne for so many hours. The feelings of the Hessians can scarcely be depicted when they were compelled to leave the pleasant village and its holiday revels and tramp over the slippery roads as captives of war. More than one thousand of WASHINGTON's army were reported unfit for duty the next day.
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
The Hessian officers were taken to the Bucks county jail, at Newtown, December 27. On December 30 and 31 the prisoners were sent to Philadelphia, being paraded through that city for the purpose of inspiring the patriots and showing them that the war- like Hessians could be captured. Some of them joined the patriot army ; many of them never took up arms again, and their descend- ants are now amongst the most thrifty farmers of our neighboring State. The rest were exchanged and joined the British army in Philadelphia in the spring of 1778.
The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel refused to give the three Hessian regiments new colors, and informed them that they should carry none until they had taken an equal number of standards in battle. The officers were all court-martialed for their conduct at the fight in this village, but the German War Commission, on April 15, 1782, acquitted the surviving officers from the responsibility of their capture, and placed most of the blame on the dead RALL and the dead VON DECHOW.
On the morning of December 27 WASHINGTON dispatched Lieu- tenant-Colonel GEORGE BAYLOR, of his staff, to give the news to Congress, at Baltimore. Colonel BAYLOR was received with great delight by that body, and they presented him with a horse and equipments as a mark of their gratitude for the good news he brought them
To many it has always seemed unfortunate that General EWING did not succeed in crossing at Trenton landing. Of course, if he had done so before daylight and under cover of darkness, and he had not been seen until the firing began on the Pennington road, then all would have been well, and probably he would have stopped the flight of the fugitives across the Assunpink bridge. But if he · had been seen, the alarm would have been sounded, the excitement would probably have sobered RALL, and with his veterans he would have whipped EWING and his militia before breakfast. He would . then have been ready to fight WASHINGTON and his men at eight
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
o'clock, with, perchance, a different result. I am disposed to think the failure of General EWING to cross the river was a fortunate thing. Colonel CADWALADER also failed to cross the river at Burlington, on Christmas night, and so to aid in shaking up the cantonments in Burlington county.
I will not give you the details of the recrossing of the river by WASHINGTON on December 30 and 31 ; of his occupation again of Trenton ; of his quarters at the house of Major JOHN BARNES, the Loyalist, the old yellow house with its poplar trees, which many of us remember, on Greene street, just below where the " WASHINGTON Market " is now built ; of his all-day fighting his advance detach- ments January 2, 1777, with the skilled troops on the van of the British army; of the skirmishing at Six Mile run and through Maidenhead, now Lawrenceville ; of the stand made on Shabbaconk creek ; of the persistent fighting down Queen street ; of the stub- born opposition made by the detachments of opposing troops at the Assunpink bridge. I could also speak of the wonderful flank movement by the Quaker road ; the fighting on Stony brook ; the victory at Princeton ; the winter campaign over, New Jersey virtually free of the insolent British foe and WASHINGTON and his army secure among the mountains of Morris county, weary, ex- hausted, but crowned with the laurels of a well-earned victory.
The effect of the struggle in this town upon the American people can scarcely be estimated. The British were no longer considered invincible ; the fierce Hessian was no longer dreaded. Vigor was imparted to a cause that appeared almost hopeless. Recruits came to the army, the friends of liberty received new inspiration and new courage, and Congress was strengthened in its resolves of patriotic duty. Lord GEORGE GERMAIN, the Colonial Secretary of State of King GEORGE III., voiced the opinion of the people of Great Britain on this disastrous fight when he wrote: "All our hopes were blasted by that unhappy affair at Trenton."
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THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.
The monument, the corner-stone of which we have laid to-day on the very spot where the American batteries raked the streets of Trenton with deadly shot and shell, shall commemorate for all time the prowess of our ancestors, those ragged Continentals who faltered not. In silent eloquence this monumental column will teach your children's children lessons of patriotism. On these very streets, they will remember that despair was turned to hope, defeat to victory. It will call to their minds again and again the exalted character of that soldier whose patriotism was pre-eminent, whose courage was ever strong, who abounded in generosity toward his enemies, and who sought only the independence of his country and its perpetuity. And then it will remind us all how he received, a little more than one hundred years ago, and but a few steps from where we are to-night, a tribute as a statesman from the mothers, the wives and the daughters of those whom he had led out into the eternal sunlight of freedom. The memory of that beautiful ovation of song and of flowers comes across the century full of sweetness, rich in harmony ; it bears to us the deep devotion of their loving hearts.
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Princeton University Library 32101 072355041
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DATE ISSUED DATE DUE DATE ISSUED DATE DUE
JAN
JUN 0.6 2
NOV 5 .82
JUN 18 1974
QUE JUN 1 2 1984 RETURNED DEC 1 5 1983
JAN 0.2.2005
OV 2 8 JUN 18 75
XXXXXXXX21985
AUG 2
SEP 18 77
MAR 1 1985
SEP 2 4 OCT 2 2 7607 JUL 3
APR 2
X
MAY 07 2000
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